Francisco Rodríguez (baseball)

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**Francisco Rodríguez**
Major League Baseball debut
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim — No. 57
Closing Pitcher
Bats: Right	Throws: Right
September 18, 2002 for the Anaheim Angels
Selected MLB statistics (through October 1, 2006)
Saves	106
Save Pct.	.841
ERA	2.29
WHIP	1.05
Strikeouts	420
Awards
2004 All-Star

Francisco "Frankie" José Rodríguez (born January 7, 1982 in Caracas, Venezuela), nicknamed "K-Rod", is a Major League Baseball player. A right-handed relief pitcher, he has played for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim since 2002, and served as their closer since 2005.

1 Career highlights
2 Pitches
3 Nickname
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Career highlights

Rodríguez signed as a non-drafted amateur free agent in 1998. Originally a starting pitcher, Rodríguez moved to relief pitching in 2002 after elbow and shoulder injuries shortened parts of his 2001 minor league season. Critics have also claimed his slight build and lack of stamina made him ineffective as a starter. He made his major league debut in 2002. With the multiple injuries to the Angels bullpen, the club picked him up at the mid of September. He emerged as a postseason relief hero on international television, winning five postseason games, never having won a major league game before.

Because Rodríguez had played very little in the Major Leagues, hitters in the playoffs had little idea what to expect from him, a situation that often favors the pitcher. In the ALDS he silenced the Yankees bats, and got two victories with 8 strikeouts in five and two-thirds innings. Against the Twins in the ALCS, he went 2-0 with seven batters fanned in four and one-third innings. Finally, in the 2002 World Series against the Giants, he had a 1-1 record with 13 strikeouts in eight and two-thirds innings. At 20 years old, he became the youngest pitcher in 32 years to pitch in the World Series and the youngest ever to pick up a victory.

In his sophomore year, Rodríguez became a legitimate, polished setup man. He gave up an earned run in nine of his first 15 games, but then only nine of last 44 appearances. He was selected for the All-Star Game and on August 24, 2004 became the sixth pitcher in the Angels' 44-year history to strike out at least 100 batters in a season without starting a game - joining Mark Clear (105 in 1980), DeWayne Buice (109, 1987), Bryan Harvey (101, 1991) and Troy Percival (100, 1996), and Scot Shields (109, 2004) in that same year. Shields now serves as setup man to Rodríguez.

Entering the 2005 season veteran Angels closer Troy Percival departed to sign as a free agent with Detroit leaving the door open for Rodríguez to become the Angels' full-time closer. Overcoming both a tendency to walk too many batters, and a particularly embarrassing moment in which he allowed the Oakland Athletics to score the winning run of a game by carelessly dropping a simple return throw from the catcher, Rodríguez nonetheless rose to the challenge presented him in 2005 and tied with Bob Wickman for the American League lead in saves with 45.

As of October 1, 2006, Rodríguez leads the American League in saves with 47. On September 10 against the Toronto Blue Jays, he became the youngest closer in major league baseball history to accumulate 100 career saves at age 24. He accomplished this feat a year younger than the previous record holder, Gregg Olson. For his exploits as a relief pitcher, Rodriguez was named the DHL Baseball Delivery Man[1] for the month of August. [2]

[edit] Pitches

The fastball headlines Rodríguez's repertoire. It consistently hits 94-97 MPH, and because of its natural movement gets mistaken for a hard slider. His breaking ball comes in two varieties—a back-breaking slider which starts looking like a strike and then breaks down out of the strike zone, and a looping pitch more closely resembling a slurve which, at its best, makes right-handed batters knees buckle before breaking back into the strike zone. Since his slider breaks so sharply into the dirt, it at times makes him vulnerable to throwing wild pitches. Rodríguez has added a changeup to his repertoire for the 2006 season, though he rarely throws it.

[edit] Nickname

Rodríguez's nickname of "K-Rod" became quickly popular during his meteoric rise in late September of 2002 and the playoffs. It is a take-off on "A-Rod", the nickname of baseball star Alex Rodriguez, with "K" representing the common abbreviation for strikeout.